Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

Several lost-soul night-owls, including a nightclub owner, a talkback radio relationships counseller, and an itinerant stranger have encounters that expose their contradictions and anxieties about love and acceptance.

A retired New York cop on vacation in America's West is drawn into a sheriff's investigation of a mysterious series of cattle killings.

Health is set at a health food convention at a Florida luxury hotel, where a powerful political organization is deciding on a new president.

An uptight bachelor tries his luck with a computer dating service and gets matched up with his polar opposite.

Muffin's wedding to Dino Corelli is to be a big affair. Except the ageing priest isn't too sure of the ceremony, only the families actually turn up as the Corelli Italian connection is suspect, security guards watch the gifts rather over-zealously, and Dino's grandma expires in bed just as the reception starts. Could be quite an occasion.